Andrew Jackson, Volume 1: The Course of American Empire, 1767-1821

Andrew Jackson, Volume 1: The Course of American Empire, 1767-1821

Robert V. Remini

Language: English

Pages: 727

ISBN: 2:00218709

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub

Available in paperback for the first time, these three volumes represent the definitive biography of Andrew Jackson. Volume One covers the role Jackson played in America's territorial expansion, bringing to life a complex character who has often been seen simply as a rough-hewn country general. Volume Two traces Jackson's senatorial career, his presidential campaigns, and his first administration as President. The third volume covers Jackson's reelection to the presidency and the weighty issues with which he was faced: the nullification crisis, the tragic removal of the Indians beyond the Mississippi River, the mounting violence throughout the country over slavery, and the tortuous efforts to win the annexation of Texas.

headed back to Mobile. On his return Jackson learned that Colonel Nicholls had established a fort on the Apalachicola River which separated East from West Florida. The fort was intended as a staging area for raids on the frontier settlements of Georgia as well as a point of attack on Fort Jackson to cut off American supplies from the Alabama area. Jackson sent Major Uriah Blue of the Thirty-ninth Regiment and approximately 1,000 men to harass the Indians in the area, destroy their crops, and

he received early in May that hundreds of Indians were assembling at Pensacola and with Spanish assistance were planning to attack American settlements.32 When Jackson left St. Marks he commanded 1,200 troops, regulars and volunteers. He had hardly gone more than a half dozen miles when he learned of an outrage visited on Indians by white men. The Indians in question were his allies and under his protection. More than that, they had fed his half-starved troops on their march from Tennessee

Pensacola and the Spanish congregated to watch it. Suddenly, Jackson appeared and immediately began issuing commands and calling for help. But the Spanish, knowing little English, did not understand him. They saw only a wildly excited man waving and yelling at them. In a panic they fled to their homes, leaving the Governor to watch the conflagration alone.94 These painful scenes only convinced Jackson that he must leave Florida soon and return home. He hated every moment of his term as Governor,

sense of honor, and in what I thought, his chivalrous conceptions of the female sex, it occurred to me, that he was distinguishable from every other person with whom I was acquainted.”6 When Jackson learned of Rachel’s decision to flee to Natchez he expressed his tremendous sorrow to Overton, claiming he was “the most unhappy of men, in having innocently and unintentionally been the cause of the loss of peace and happiness of Mrs. Robards, whom he believed to be a fine woman.”7 Soon thereafter

served the expansionist and imperial ambitions of the entire people of the United States.79 And that essential ingredient separated success from failure and hero from traitor. In 1797 the Blount conspiracy unraveled with all deliberate speed once the incriminating letter to Carey had been disclosed. A select committee of the House of Representatives initiated an inquiry and reported that Blount “did conspire, and contrive to create, promote, and set on foot within the jurisdiction of the United